Multi-Player Games, which provided the means for two or more players to compete, most often in simulation of a popular sport, commended themselves well to the early days of coin-operated machines. Usually a fairly simple mechanism dispensed nothing tangible in exchange for money. In effect, players "hired" the machine and their dynamic interaction supplied much of the entertainment. Most involved a ball game, and some a race (where the aim was to crank the handle fastest). Doughty and Barrett's The Racer of 1896 required two players to stake a penny on the game. By returning a coin to the winner, it added a wagering aspect, and this became common on subsequent machines. Two downsides, from an operator's standpoint, was that they generally required more floor space, with two or more players stationed around them, and earned no income from the lone patron.

Wall-mounted two player machine with fast gameplay. For a penny, ten balls (or fewer, if the operator was greedy) are alternately delivered to the right and left bat by turning the crank. Goals scored can be counted in the recessed windows next to the knobs which control the bats.

Insert two pennies to start an electric pump which shoots balls upwards. Two players compete to catch as many balls as possible by manipulating the two brass nets. The winner gets to keep the returned coin when a timer ends the game.

These robust, oak-cased games were a common sight in arcades of the '50s and '60s. Play is fast-paced as the two chrome manikins swivel on the spot, trying to fling the puck (ball) at each other's goals.

Two pennies are inserted and the first player to orbit their satellite around the earth wins a penny back. As the satellites progress, the planets revolve on their axes. This is one of the smallest two-player race games (most of which are robust, floor-standing machines). Characteristically, Mr Bryan protected it from overenthusiastic competitors, designing it to reward those who wind the handle at optimum, rather than maximum, speed. Wind too fast and the drive disengages.

Appropriately, this game arrived at the start of a much larger race which began with the launch of the Soviet Union's first satellite, Sputnik 1.